By Susan Letterman White
The ability to lead change projects and influence individuals to change their behavior or follow a particular leader has never been more important than it is today. The world in which every organization operates has become increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. We live in a VUCA world. The term may have been coined by the US Army War College in 1987, but the need to adapt to this situation has never been more applicable than now.
Leadership development has focused on the leader with little thought about the variety of people the leader needs to engage or the context in which the leader must operate. Further, most models of leadership development assume that the leader will use power from the exercise of formal authority and expertise to lead willing followers. This is an outdated perspective for law firms and law departments in a world, whose future is uncertain and unclear, whose context is volatile and complex, and where formal authority and expertise aren’t as powerful as they once were.
Further, not all people are similarly motivated. Some are motivated by a desire to belong, others by a desire for power, and still others for a sense of achievement. The role of today’s leader is to know what motivates their people as individuals and how context influences their motivation and be able to influence behavior by adjusting context and selecting the right leadership style for the situation.
Today’s environmental context is rife with unpredictability and complexity, starting with the people a leader is tasked with leading. Many of the older leadership theories are based on a limited conceptual view of leaders and followers and a limited skill set related to directly influencing behavior through the leader’s ability to persuade or engage followers using the trust and/or fear that used to attach to formal authority and expertise. Today’s reality demands an expanded view of people - leaders and others. Others include quiet followers, vocal supporters, bystanders, outsiders, vocal obstructionists, silent obstructionists, hidden connectors for the flow of information, and hidden influencers of desired changes. Consequently, leadership today will be more effective when the leader identifies the hidden connectors and influencers through the use of social network analysis.
Complexity is also present in the organization’s internal contextual elements, its: (1) people; (2) resources, such as technology, available cash, and time; (3) structures that connect, group, and otherwise organize people for a particular purpose and connect with to power; (4) processes - how people execute the various tasks that must be accomplished to make an organization do whatever needs to be done to effectuate its purpose for existing; and (5) socially constructed narratives about values, identity, vision, and goals. The external context is the world in which the organization or group operates, from the macro forces, like politics and economics to the micro forces, like a single client or new technology.
Leading is a process of collecting and analyzing data about context and then creating the right internal context. For example, a leader, who intends to create leadership bench strength, will evaluate every structure, process, resource allocation, and socially constructive narrative for their effects or potential effects on what is needed to create leadership bench strength. For example, do organizational structures bring high potential leaders and high performing leaders together? Are high performing leaders engaged in modeling, mentoring, and sponsoring processes? If not, the leadership question is: Which structures and processes must change and how?
Contextual leaders are successful by including the right people, at the right time, in making and implementing the right decisions to adjust aspects of the organizational context and create the changes that define effective, resilient, and high-performance organizations. Rare is the leader with sufficient charisma to persuade or power to force into existence the context required for any high performing organization. Instead, contextual leaders begin with a vision and specific objectives. Then the focus shifts to adjusting elements of the context to encourage the right behaviors to emerge.
Context adjustment requires preparation, planning, and implementation of actions to create the desired changes. There are four steps to preparation: (1) define the problem to be solved; (2) describe the desired outcome; (3) collect data about the contextual elements that maintain the status quo; and (4) analyze the data to better understand what is maintaining the status quo and which contextual elements to change. Superimposed on the entire process is the participation of the right people at the right time.
The right people: (1) have data about the status quo; (2) are able to analyze and attach meaning to the data; (3) have the power to close the gap between the present and desired outcome or block efforts to do so; and (4) will be affected by or participate in the context changes. Including the right people builds collaboration, trust, and energy. It also overcomes multiple types of resistance to change, creates inclusion, and builds organizational cohesion.
Getting the right people involved is a function of the leaders’ network and influence ability. A good leader is always building their network of supporters, so that when help is needed, the right people with the right power are willing and able to help. What’s most important is to identify the people who are strongly in favor and will help drive the change forward; those who are neutral and won’t help or interfere; and those who are opposed and will use their influence and efforts to oppose the change. A significant force of resistance will come from people who are opposed and have the power to block your efforts. You must have a plan to overcome this type of obstacle by influencing them to take a more neutral position or removing them, if that is not possible. Additionally, the people strongly in favor and with the ability and willingness to help, your allies, need to know how they can help. Is it to influence someone who is neutral to change their perspective and actively help? Is it to use their formal power to make something happen?
Contextual Leadership is leading this multifaceted change process with a set of skills that affects how the leader thinks, feels, and behaves. Consider the difficulty in getting people to use a new CRM system, the benefit of which, to improve client relations management, is broadcast in the name. Rational argument does not persuade anyone to spend time and effort learning a new technology when the personal benefits are difficult to imagine and the costs much more obvious. Instead, including these people as participants in a collaborative preparation, planning, and implementation process to identify the contextual elements to change and how and when to change them, influences people to learn about and use the new technology.
Contextual leaders are only as effective as their foundation of knowledge in three core areas: organization dynamics that cause the persistence of the status quo; systemic and individual change dynamics; and self-awareness and use of self as an instrument of change. The associated skills fall into four categories as shown in the table below.
This set of skills is best developed through a combination of formal training, action learning (on-the-job learning or learning-by-doing combined with reflection) and coaching. Incorporating Contextual Leadership into your organization builds a foundation for success in all types of change projects.
